S2 EP 18 Exercise

If you listened to this guest interview of researcher Jaycob Izso, you can practice these exercises with yourself or a friend who trusts their intimate nature. No peeking at the significance first!

(Scroll down once you've answered the questions!)

Questions:

(1) Describe your favorite animal (or whatever comes to mind when you think of your favorite animal) in three or four words or phrases, try to focus on emotional words or general feelings about your animal.

(2) Describe your favorite color (or whatever comes to mind when you think of your favorite color) in three or four words or phrases, try to focus on emotional words or general feelings about your color.

(3) Imagine your favorite tree or whatever tree comes to mind when you think about the term "tree". Try to describe it in three or four emotional phrases/words or feelings.

(4) Imagine a waterfall or whatever comes to mind when you think of the term "waterfall". Try to describe it in three or four emotional phrases/words or feelings.

(5) Imagine you are in a completely white room (whatever you imagine this room looks like is up to you, just imagine that it is completely white). Imagine that you look up and on the ceiling above, you notice a single black spot. What are your first three or four thoughts or feelings?

Correspondence:

(1) Usually corresponds with how we see ourselves. Or how we see traits (positive or negative) that we find central to ourselves.

(2) Usually corresponds with how we want to be perceived by others or how we present ourselves to others.

(3) Usually corresponds to how we might describe our ideal mate or partner. Or what sorts of things we typically look for in a partner.

(4) Usually refers to our ideal sex. Or what our favorite aspects are about the activity of sex.

(5) This is an interesting one as it usually corresponds to how we think about death. Common answers often times come in the form of questions ("what is it doing there?" "What is that?" etc.) expressing our curiosity about the notion of death, but sometimes it also reflects our unconscious correlations with our thoughts about our own death. "